Comes the Spring
by Nightheart
Summary: He lost his love before the first plum blossom bloomed, but after fifty years of winter...
1. Shadows of Memories

It might have been a mere coincidence that she remembered her old life, but a happenstance of that nature is rare, so rather, many who are aware of the extraordinary nature of thier bond would probably simply call it destiny.

It happened during one of the now-frequent Hollow attacks that happened in the Rukongai since the War of Aizen's Rebellion had hit a lull at the end of winter. In the final battle against the massed forces of the Hollows in Hueco Mundo met against all of the Soul Reapers, powerful and powerless alike, there had been a large price to pay on both sides... Aizen was beaten but not defeated, he and his two lieutenants had managed to evade capture and escape in the confusion while the Reapers had their hands full with the Hollow army. The massive loss of forces had meant that there were less reapers int he feild to protect against incursions against the Soul Society, and now the poor inhabitants of the Rukon Districts had to worry about Hollow attacks in addition to their already difficult afterlives.

It had been during one such attack against the noodle shop where she had found work that her mind was flooded with memories restored, of another time and another life, before she had ever lived the life in the Mortal World that had killed her slowly in her prime. Her mortal life had been relatively short but not entirely unhappy, so she had crossed over with relatively few regrets and had found work easily in that incarnation afterward. She'd been content, up until that point, to simply live and work out there in relative obscurity, owing nothing to anyone and being owed nothing in return, and awaiting for her next turn on the Wheel of Rebirth. She had thought that the strange emptiness inside of her heart had been mere longing for the world of the living, with its rich textures of life and fleshly immediacy. She had assumed that everyone felt that yearning emptiness in their souls for misremembered loves that shadowed the edges of their dreams for that feeling was part of her normality. She had always thought that it was normal to awake at night, aching for the caresses of strong, delicate hands with tapered fingers and thick silken locks, for a hauntingly familiar warm body and a and soft bed lit by the golden glow of a single candle. She had thought that the pull on her essence, gravitating her body towards a peace and comfort she knew but did not fully remember, was something everyone felt and never spoke of. She had not known that her tantalizingly close yet forever veiled shadow of memory that haunted the edges of her sleep was something unique to her.

The morning her former memories came flooding back to her, filling all the empty shadowed crevices in her mind, had started like any other. She had woken up in her thin, futon, covered by her worn and patched blanket, in the tiny closet of a room that was nonetheless all hers above the noddle shop where she worked. The sun was not quite up yet and dawn was a mere pale line along the horizon as she pulled on her warm outer wrap over her sleeping yukata and crept downstairs before the master of the shop woke in order to lay the fire, then she headed out to the well to fetch the water for the days work.

Her life in the afterlife wasn't so bad; she had a bed that was warm enough, she had clothes that were no too much the worse for wear, the old man she worked for, while often crotchety, was kind in his gruff way, and she had enough to eat. She would easily have described her existence as one of contentedness except for the strange dreams that haunted the edge of her waking. Dreams of a soft and beloved voice, of hands warm and gentle, of lips murmuring her name in tones of deep affection... But she had assumed that that was normal. The day had started out average enough, but as she was drawing up the second bucket of water from the common well, her life changed in an eyeblink. A massive Hollow appeared in the courtyard and began to thrash around, destroying many of the somewhat flimsy buildings surrounding the bare dirt yard, it flailed its limbs indiscriminately, wrecking the surrounding properties, seemingly without realizing that it had done so. What had started out as a peaceful morning erupted into screams and violence. She instinctively shrunk back against the stone side of the well, ducking her head down and trying to make herself as small and unnoticeable as possible, when the Hollow, by some inner instinct, paused in its rampage and turned its attention her way. It advanced on the place where she cowered, shivering and praying that it would pass her by. Its massive bulk and mantis-like scythe-limbs clawing up the hard-packed dirt and sending tremors of presence that grew ever-louder in the chill dawn air. A curious instinct had prompted her to raise her head and peek up out of shut eyes, looking up in fear and alarm as it loomed over her. Her whole body seized in terror and she curled up as tight as her tiny form would allow, her gaze captivated as any mouse by the hypnotizing compelling stare of a predator.

:_I'm going to die here_,: she realized distantly as the empty-eyed stare of Hunger itself looked back at her with pitiless desire.

At that moment, a strange feeling of calm washed through her. At the instant she almost gave up on her life she felt the echo of a similar feeling reverberate through her. Her body and soul seized up in one moment, feeling like a harpstring that the universe had plucked.

:_I want to live_!: her soul cried. Followed swiftly by

:_I don't want to go, I don't want to leave **him**_!:

Leave who? her mind questioned herself... and that was when it came. Visions of a life lived before, a life saturated with undeserved happiness and the inability to enjoy it, or to even return the love so generously bestowed upon her unworthy self, flooded every corner and she **_remembered_**.

It was when she remembered that precious love that she had once had, and the abandoned duty that she had turned away from in a moment of frightened weakness, that her life became too precious to lose again. She looked back up at the Hollow, staring down at her with a hungry anticipation and her terror melted away, replaced with a single conviction.

:_I cannot die here_,: she knew right then. :_I cannot die here, not without making my way to him, not without at least apologizing for my weakness and my selfishness, not without telling him that I was wrong... that I did love him. I loved him. I loved him with all that was left of my heart. With all the tattered remains of my guilty soul, I loved him. I didn't want to burden him further for if he'd known how I had truly felt, he would surely have followed after me. He deserves to know the truth. I cannot leave this existence before I tell him_.:

That conviction gave her a strength and courage she had never known herself capable of. Rising to her feet, she stared back at the lost soul who presumed that it might consume her, consume her!, who presumed that it would keep her from his side, keep her from her rightful place that the universe had given her. She was perhaps a rabbit before a lioness, but she was a rabbit who could move faster and hide better than any lioness could ever hope to find. Not fear but strength and love gave her feet wings as she dashed to the side to seek shelter in any place that offered it. The wreckage was a shamble of wood and stone, a dangerous labyrinth of jagged edges and splinters ready to impale her at a misstep, but she plunged in, scrambling over the wooden remains of walls and pillars, ducking under collapsed doorways, scrabbling over fallen walls, squeezing through any opening that seemed remotely small enough to accommodate her tiny form, with all the nimbleness of any Rukon brat. She stayed just barely out of the swiping claws and desperate lunges of the Hollow, feeling the cool air of its sharp limbs passing just short of her neck on occasion as she remained barely out of its reach. She could feel its crashing footsteps behind her, the noise of its approach. Her heart pounded in her chest and she moved with the instinct of prey, abandoning cloth tattering on the edges in her desperation to escape. Just as she felt that she couldn't possibly run another step, her lungs burned and ached and a solid wall loomed up in front of her, she sensed that ephemeral pressure along the edges of her senses like sunlight on her skin.

"I got it's right side," a voice from above her head said.

"Fine then, I'll get the mask," another voice remarked casually.

Crouched on the top of the walls were two forms garbed in black, swords tucked through the belts at their waist. They darted in, faster than she could perceive them, and were upon the masked menace in pursuit of her. In a time that seemed anti-climatically short in comparison to the sheer overwhelming terror of her escape from its clutches, they had disposed of the creature. Acting as though nothing more important than a leisurely stroll in the park had just taken place, instead of their having saved her life, one remarked to the other

"What's that, the third one this morning?"

The other nodded.

"About that, yeah. Uppitty bastards, they've got some nerve showing up this close, this district's in the twenties."

"They're getting bolder, even without that bastard in command."

Hisana, for that had been her name and was her name and would always be her name, took a trembling step forward with the intention of thanking them but they blurred and disappeared before she could even begin to speak, not once even looking over at her. She wasn't sure if she should be grateful to them for saving her life, or think them very rude for not seeing if she was really alright.

:_Well_!: Hisana thought to herself, hardly knowing what to make of a world turned on its side.

When she had woken that morning, she had been one person, and now she found she was someone else, someone with a _real _purpose instead of a vague calling in her soul. She had to see him once again. That was all she knew and all she wanted to know. Even if, after all this time, he had found someone else, he deserved at least to hear the truth from her own lips, that she had loved him, dearly.

In addition to that, if her beloved Byakuya had yet to find her little sister, Hisana had a quest to continue. It had been many many years and it was vanishingly likely that her little sister was still alive if she was still out in the Rukon Districts, especially in a place like the lower districts, but if Rukia was still lost, Hisana would find her this time. Maybe she'd never be forgiven for leaving her behind, but she would make sure that Rukia was safe, just as soon as she made her apologies to her beloved former husband.

That was when an obstacle to her self-imposed goal reared it head. Yes she had loved him dearly even though they were of two separate worlds, the point now was that they **_had _**been (and still technically were) of two different worlds. She was out in the Rukon District, while he remained tucked away inside the Seireitei, completely out of her reach. She doubted very much that if she were to simply walk up to the Gate and present them with her story that she would find very many ears sympathetic to her plight (and more importantly willing to risk the very formidable and scary wrath of Byakuya Kuchiki if she was lying to them) or willing to believe that it wasn't some kind of a scam on her part.

So then, how was she to get to where he was? It was vanishingly likely that he would spend his time strolling about the Rukon District for her to find and reunite with. So if he would not be available to come to her, then she was simply going to have to find a way to go to him. But how?

Hisana looked over at the noodle shop where she worked, which had miraculously managed to escape destruction, though the old man who ran it was busily cursing fate and his ancestors for the minimal amount of damage that had been done to it, and knew she was at a crossroads. She could go back to her comfortable familiar life where she had all that she needed, or she could turn down a different road, one that might possibly have some danger to it (for not all, or even many, of the Kuchiki Clan had been a friend to her and there had been no few that Hisana had felt would not flinch at turning to poison or assassination to remove her from their midst) in the hope of recapturing a beautiful love she had let go.

:_Byakuya_...: she thought, now at last having a name for that aching yearning deep within her essence.

She was not complete without him. She had a choice, but in her mind it was no choice at all. She _needed _to see him.

:_Even if it's just a glimpse of him, I have to know that he's okay_.:

If he had found happiness with another that was his right, and she would not begrudge him that happiness. She would satisfy herself with the knowledge that the one she loved was content, but she had to see him with her own eyes, she had to _know _that he was alright. So... how to get to where he was in order to see him?

Her love was an impetus that had unconsciously moved her feet without her being aware of it; she had drifted silently out of the courtyard that had been her home for uncounted years since her lingering, cancerous death in the Mortal World. She was now walking down an unfamiliar street, her feet automatically pointed in the direction of the great walled city at the heart of the Soul Society.

:_I can't just walk right in and present myself at the front gate of the Kuchiki manor_,: she thought to herself, her foreknowledge of all the various rules and restrictions about who was permitted to go where in the Seireitei floating up from the depths of her memories.

:_Scratch that, forget the Kuchiki Estate for now, I can't even get into the **Seireitei**, never mind getting into the hallowed halls of the estate of its greatest nobility_.:

First things first after all.

She continued her journey on foot, part of her mind distracted by sorting out what was what, and, being not altogether an unclever woman, Hisana slowly began to formulate a plan.

Getting into the Seireitei was not impossible. The place might be impregnable to attack from the outside, but there was some small degree of fluidity between its Gates, so long as one had proper authorization. There was a potential weakness she could exploit, a way to take advantage of that fluidity and find a way inside the Gates. Soul Reapers often went to bars and taverns (and the red-light districts) that existed mostly for that very purpose just outside the Gates. Being soldiers, of a sort, the first thing many of them chose to do once put on liberty was to find a place to drink as much as it took to become inebriated as quickly as possible... with the result often being that the owners of such establishments proving a service of having their inebriated customers delivered back to their racks or risk losing custom by developing a bad reputation among the soldiery.

That gave her a potential way in, and once she was inside... well, she might look like a civilian but Hisana had that wide-eyed helpless-little-bunny-rabbit look to her, if anyone thought to question her she could just give them her best wide, helpless stare and claim to be lost or something.

She looked down at herself, her already work yukata was dusty and torn. She'd stand out like a sore thumb, no-one would possibly believe that she was anything but trash from the Rukongai if she tried to sneak in looking like this. It seemed a change of dress was in order.

:_And I wouldn't want to meet with him looking like a frump after all_.:

Make that definitely in order.

She pulled out her purse on its string from a hidden inner pocket in her robe and counted coins by the weight, a trick she'd learned after one too many times of having her hard-earned money stolen right in front of her eyes when she paused to count it in a busy street. She had enough saved up for one nice, new yukata and a meal if she was frugal. Frugal was her middle name. Hisana tucked her purse back securely and picked up her pace, heading in a ground-eating fast-walk to the forbidden city in the distance.

:_I'm coming, Byakuya_,: she thought, wondering if her hope would somehow reach him through the thread that connected thier fates.

:_Just wait a while and I'll be there soon_.:

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**My other favorite pairing besides my OTP Renji and Rukia. I've had this forever on my hard drive (it was supposed to be a Valentines Day fic for last year!) and I decided to stop putting it off and just post it already. I hop you all enjoyed the first chapter and look forward to reading more. Please let me know what you thought.**


	2. A Dream That Has Never Been

Rukia was in trouble again.

Fortunately this time it was a minor matter; merely one of the elders in a bit of a tiff over the fact that she'd frozen over half of the duck pond when she'd chosen to appropriate one of the inner gardens for use as a training ground for sword practice earlier that week.

:_Aided and abetted, no doubt, by my **impertinent **young lieutenant_,: he thought in mild annoyance.

Now that the boy had achieved sufficient rank to dare to approach a noblewoman of House Kuchiki with his head raised, the two of them (after a great deal of nonsense involving an execution and a nearly-disastrous trip to Hueco Mundo) had seemingly regained thier formerly close relationship with one another and had turned their attention to finding new ways to irritate the Kuchiki Elders.

He had _no doubt_ that their occasionally mischievous little pranks were _entirely _accidental... or rather, that they were carefully orchestrated to be made to _seem _that way. However, Byakuya Kuchiki was not the only one who found it a little suspicious that in the course of three weeks Renji and Rukia had managed to find subtle ways to neutralize a number of the personalities and regulations that Rukia seemed to find inconvenient.

The first _incident _occurred when they had been sparring and Renji had "accidentally" fallen through the laundry and ruined a patricularly hideous kimono (that Rukia absolutely detested) that the Matriarch of the Clan was going to force her to wear at the next formal event held in the seireitei. The next time was in the following week, when Rukia had "accidentally" fed the manor's ducks a little too close to the house, and, in her haste to find help to drive the feathered pests away, had left a basketful of crumbs spilled on the floor of the room adjacent to where she'd been feeding the ducks, that, _coincidentally _he was _sure_, had belonged to great auntie Grizelda... who was forever nagging and scolding Rukia about minor points of decorum. And finally, just last week was the pond incident, the pond in question belonging to a cousin of the house who was forever plaguing Rukia with reprimands about her posture and the fact that she was neither submissive nor contrite.

One could take a girl form the Rukon District, but it seemed that one could not completely take the Rukon District from the girl.

A good thing too, Byakuya Kuchiki, for all that he had to deal with the complaints, and in his own time to formally lecture and reprimand his tear-away little adopted sister in the matters of protocol and proper behaviour as befitted thier house and station, felt better than he had in _years_. Part of him, the repressed little brat that every now and again still chafed at The Rules, even took a very very carefully hidden amusement at her audacious little tricks. So far, she she and her overly large partner in crime managed matters well enough to where, while she might be reprimanded for carelessness, no-one could actually point a finger at deliberate wrong doing. So they'd both been able to squeak by with only a lecture over breakfast and Byakuya hadn't actually had to punish her. She was a clever little thing, his sister was, quite as clever as-

Byakuya Kuchiki wrenched his thoughts away from reminiscences of his beloved passed wife before the usual pain in his heart could become anything more than a pang. Common wisdom held that time was the only thing that would ease a greif such as his, but if this were so then he had yet to see any evidence of it. Nearly a full human lifetime had passed and his grief still continued unabated. Some days were better than others, if he could keep himself distracted with work, or keep his mind occupied with trying to guess at Aizen's next move or his family duties or his responsibilities as Captain of his squad, then he could usually keep the pain that the memories often brought with him at bay. Sometimes he even went an entire day without letting his thoughts drift to paradise lost, but more often than not, his thoughts strayed to her.

He would lay out on his futon, not tired enough by the activities of the day to overwhealm himself with sleep immediately, and remember what it had been like to share his bed, his life, his heart, his world with the one who had completed him in every aspect. He would remember reaching out to touch her soft skin that glowed like alabaster in the light of a single candle or like finest china in the light of the moon as he lay her out ith her and buried his face in skin as smooth as milk, drinking in her soft scent, running his hands over her soft curves, hearing her breath sigh in the dark, murmuring his name in the air between thier two bodies. he would remember the way his lips retained the taste of her even in his dreams, the feel of her silken hair in his hands, the feeling of completion she brought into his life whenever she gazed his way and really _saw _him.

"...Ba~ka," the familiar voice of his younger sister sing-songed from out in her own private garden nearby.

"I wouldn't be so pleased about your kido, brat," Renji replied, pulling himself up from the grass from where he'd failed to evade one a triple-chain of her Soukatsui spell. "You and I both know that if yer lookin' at higher level enemies, that kido ain't gonna do you a whole lot o' good no matter how many spells you fire off."

"At least I can fire off a spell without turning myself to cinders there Charcoal!" Rukia snapped back as they met back up in the center to continue their spar.

The gardeners were beginning to grumble about how much extra work the two of them were making for them but Byakuya was content to let matters stand for the time being, if he could not have the pitter-patter of little feet, he would settle for the activities of his other children. Besides that, strangely enough it seemed that regular exposure to each other was actually healthy for them. Rukia's sword-work was indeed improving, and Renji (for a wonder) had refrained from questioning the obvious on at least two occasions that his Captain had counted.

Thier wooden swords clacked together loudly in the springtime air and Byakuya sensed the push and pull of thier spirutal pressure as they shifted in and out of flash-step, each trying to gain the high ground on thier opponent.

"Stop swinging so hard!" Rukia demanded as a particularly emphatic swing had nearly managed to split her bokken.

"No way," Renji sing-songed back at her exactly as she had done to him. "if yer gonna be a well-rounded fighter ya gotta know how ta fight against heavy-hitters as well as those who fight fast and light like you an' yer brother."

"Yeah right you red-haired ape!" Rukia taunted back "You only fight like a gorilla because you have no self control."

She darted round and tried to hit him from the side, but he blocked her move easily and returned with a power-swing from the top which actually broke through her guard. Byakuya nearly moved to intercept the wooden edge before it could connect with his sisters skin, but Renji stopped it just at a feather-light touch.

"When faced with a powerful downward swing and you can't avoid it," renji advised as he gave her a quick once-over to ensure that she was sound, exactly the same way he did when training with his own subordinates in his own squad hall. "The best thing to do is grab up on the reverse-side of your blade and make it a two-handed block, you'll double the power of your defense that way. Then, while your enemies blade is on the rebound, if yer lucky an' he's not too fast, go for an overhead spin-strike... chances are you'll get his mask."

"Humph!" Rukia said, clearly displeased at being lectured to like a rookie by someone she considered beneath her abilities.

But there were reasons other than merely personal that had prompted Byakuya Kuchiki's choice of Renji Abarai as his new lieutenant. It was often remarked that the two of them were a study in opposites... that had been intentional on the part of the Sixth Squad Captain. Overspecialization bred in weakness. Byakuya for all of his power in both sword skill and kido skill, knew that he lacked something that Abarai had a great deal of... people-skill. Unlike in Thirteenth, Kuchiki did not believe in getting "chummy" with his subordinates, such behavior led to a break-down in discipline. It was unseemly besides. That was where Abarai came in. For all his density (and occasional borderline idiocy) he had a natural charisma that drew people to him and made them want to listen. His easy-going geniality made him approachable by Reapers of all stations. Captain Kuchiki was not approachable on even the best of his days, he needed a way to gauge and address flagging morale and the big oaf was it.

Aside of his professional life, his sister Rukia, though she constantly disparaged her old friend for many of the same reason's that Kuchiki himself did, had missed him. Byakuya was not a fool, he had known if his sisters supposed feelings for her former lieutenant, but unlike Rukia herself, he had seen them for what they really were. Not love, but loneliness. Kaien Shiba had possessed the same sort of aura that Renji had, the confidence of a young man in his prime who had gotten where he was based on his skill and strength alone (though for Shiba there was also the added benefit of his name). It was often said that ones first love tended to "imprint" a person, like a baby duck, to gravitate towards those who fit that general mould. He wasn't sure if that was true or not seeing as Byakuya had never been able to bring himself to look twice at another woman since his wife had died, but if he had to state a case off from his observances, he'd have said that the statement about imprinting was not without merit. Renji was big and loud and often foolish, (though Byakuya knew from observation that some of that was a bit of a mask to make others feel at ease around him) he was also kind, and supportive and loyal to a fault. Renji's first concern was Rukia's happiness, so despite his many other defects Byakuya Kuchiki could not bring himself to entirely dislike the giant oaf, no matter how much of a trial he could be some days.

:_Though I wonder what kind of upbringing they might have had, growing up with each other as role-models_,: Byakuya thought privately as he watched with an internal amazed headshake while Renji let Rukia ambush him and knock him to the ground at her feet.

Raised by wolves, the both of them. Rukia had been salvageable, he'd caught her young enough to be trained properly but Renji... after decades in Eleventh Squad there was simply no hope of him turning out as anything other than what he was.

:_But that perhaps might be a good thing_,: Kuchiki thought as he watched with further private amusement while Rukia ground his head into the dirt while pulling hard on his tail, treating him like her personal beast of burden.

Byakuya had never really gotten either of them to talk about what thier life in Rukongai had been like. Hisana had spent so much of her time there searching for her little sister but her efforts had been in vain. Despite his wife's own struggles to locate Rukia, she and Abarai had grown up with only each other apparently. Whether thier lives had been terrible or bearable out in Hangdog there was no changing what had been, and to listen to exactly how terrible it might have been surving on thier own at that age and knowing that Hisana had been searching for them while they endured such hardship would be... difficult.

Sometimes he wondered if things might have been different, if Hisana had found her little sister and brought her back to live with them in Seireitei. Would she have gotten sick, or would they perhaps have lived happily, his wife alive and healthy with the knowledge that she could make things right? Maybe they would have had children of their own by now, once Rukia was done growing up. A son to carry on Byakuya's proud family lineage naturally, or more than one son would be quite appropriate. A daughter or two that resembled their mother and aunt would be a blessing as well. House Kuchiki would naturally be able to afford them each fine dowries and husbands when the time came. Byakuya shook his head at himself and rpressed a surge of longing coupled with a surge of irritated anger at himself... Hisana was dead and gone, there would be none of those ephemeral beloved children of thier union that existed only in his imagination for him. If... _when _he did marry (as eventually he must), it would be a cold, calculated thing for the sole purpose of making an heir for his House. But not yet, not yet. he was in fine health and they were at a lull in the war, there was still time before he had to contemplate the onerous and distateful task of selecting a woman from among the nobility to become the mother of his child. He still had time yet to long after the ephemeral dreams of might-have-beens that never were.

Two of the saddest words in any language had to be if only.

Byakuya Kuchiki, Head of Clan Kuchiki, was without argument the wealthiest man in the entire Seireitei... but he would have given it all away in a heartbeat, _without hesitiation_, if it would have meant having his wife back in his life again. Hell, there were even days when he envied his lieutenant. He'd seen inside the man's living quarters, and despite his ample lieutenant's salary, Renji Abarai didn't own a single possession more than was absoulutely neccessary to own. His lieutenant's _sole _luxuries were a pair of fine sunglasses and a silk bandana, but Renji at least had the woman he loved in his life. Rukia was alive and she was well. Even if she had been "stolen" from Renji by Kuchiki, he at least could work hard enough to bring himself closer to her...

Byakuya Kuchiki, for all of his privileges, for all of his wealth, for all of his status, was forever bereft of the one thing he truly cherished. It often made him wonder; of himself (a nobleman and Captain) and his lieutenant (a pauper despite a rank that had taken him decades of work to acheive) in the end who was the better off.

* * *

**This one came out more Renkia than I had originally been intending. I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks after all. Oh well. Hisana's in the next chapter, I hope you all enjoyed this one. Look forward to it please and leave a contribution in the little box if you liked the update.**


	3. Slipping Through the Cracks

Pouring more water from the pitcher in her hand with the expert ease of long practice, Hisana obliquely eyed the target she'd chosen with great care from a table away. He was a young man, barely out of boyhood, out for a night of boasting and drinking with his friends. She had kept her ears open to their conversation as she had served the tables in her hastily picked up temporary job (gotten solely for that evening from a restaurant owner glad to hire her at half-wage for a nights work since one of his usual waitresses had called out sick with what he suspected was a case of love) and had quickly gained an assessment of the young Reaper's situation.

The boy (for he was barely out of manhood) had just graduated from the Soul Reaper Academy with his friends and had been placed in Squad Six. They hadn't seen any fighting yet but they had been told that that fact would probably change quickly since there was still a war on and there were more Hollows loose and not enough Reapers (due to some recent heavy losses among the lower ranks) to keep up with them. They were all enjoying a drink together in celebration of their assignments and the unspoken fear that this might be the last time they would all be together. Hisana had kept their sake bottles topped off and, unbeknownst to him or his comrades, had given her own chosen target a sort of drink that was twice as strong as the watered down sake that the restaurant owner normally served his customers. She kept a careful eye on her target throughout the evening, waiting for her chance. In ones and twos, his friends drifted off to either find other bars to drink at or find suitable company for their single night of leave, eventually leaving the (now passed out) young reaper to make his way home.

"Feh!" the barkeep grunted with irritation as he and the regular staff began to clean up the place for the night. "Now I s'pose I'm gonna hafta pay a rickshaw to ferry him back tonight, I can't have rumors of ill treatment at this place or I'll lose my custom. Damn..."

He was clearly irritated at having to dip into his profits for the evening to take care of the matter.

"It's alright," Hisana said with carefully feigned casualty. "I can make sure the boy makes it home safely."

"You sure about that Missy?" the barkeep asked, unsuccessfully masking his hopeful tone.

While it was true that there were rumors that a woman entering that place were usually the sorts who went looking for what they could get, the rules officially frowned on that sort of behavior (though in the recent war-times, there had been officers enough who might look the other way if a young man brought his sweetheart back during liberty). Hisana had no intentions of sticking around with the young man, but he would make a very useful pass to get into the Seireitei with.

"I am certain," she replied with perfectly calm, level tones.

Not questioning his good fortune further, the manager quickly helped to load the inebriated and nconscious young Reaper into a tiny one-person rikshaw he kept around for the purpose so that she could drag him to the Seireitei for free. The manager gave her a note for the Gatekeeper explaining the situation, readily enough since this was not precisely an uncommon occurrence, and Hisana was on her way.

She tried not to let her heart pound too hard in anticipation as she made her way towards the Gate. She fingered the finer material of her newly purchased yukata, bought at a very generous discount from a dealer in second-hand clothes. The servants who worked, but did not live, within the noble houses of the Seireitei often received the cast-offs of their mistresses once the clothes were too worn or out of fashion for their masters to wear them anymore, those who were not of a mind to remake them over for their own use would often add to their wages by selling them to used clothing dealers on the outside. Clothes that were torn or stained went to second-hand dealers on a slightly lower strata than ones who bought directly usable goods, those dealers resold articles of clothing or rags that were not immediately usable for a fraction of the cost. Hisana, thrifty and clever, had picked out for herself an inner robe with a tear down one side seam that could easily be mended with a long length of ribbon and a needle and thread, an outer robe that had been ripped along the bottom hem that she would have had to cut off anyway to fit her, and an obi that had had wine spilled on it; the stain could be wrapped and twisted so that it did not show. The result was a fine looking set of clothes that would not have been out of place in the upper-level servants of the nobility... perfect camouflage for the next stage in her plans.

:_Here goes_,: she thought, trying not to let her heart pound in trepidation as she approached the gate of the Seireitei with its massive, stolid guardian standing attentively in front of it.

:_Just act natural_,: she counseled herself. :_Don't be nervous, or he'll get suspicious. This is nothing more than you having to hoist a troublesome drunk home when you could be going home yourself and going to bed_.:

Suiting that, Hisana straightened her spine and quickened her pace, carefully arranging her face into a mask of irritation and impatience as she marched her burden up to the gate.

"Who goes there?" the deep, booming voice of the guardian demanded even though he had watched her approach. Apparently it was protocol.

"I'm from The Running Tap," Hisana said, keeping her voice strong and steady and laced with irritation.

She quickly all but shoved her paper into his face as he bent down to examine her.

"This one here wound up too drunk to make it home on his own and the manager's too cheap to hire a rickshaw, so here I am, toting his drunken carcass back where it belongs."

"Hn," the immense guardian grunted.

His tone conveyed the notion that her story was neither uncommon nor unexpected. His next words confirmed it.

"Happens all the time. These greeneies emerge fresh out of the Academy and the first thing they do is drink themselves into a nuisance for the people around them. Would you happen to know what squad he's from? I don't recognize him."

"I think he said Sixth," she answered honestly.

Deciding to add a little more credibility to her character she, injected a little more annoyance in her tone as she quickly added

"It was a busy night so I wasn't paying much attention, they nearly run me off my feet tonight they did, then I get stuck carrying _this _one halfway across the Rukongai when I could be home sleeping... but I'm pretty sure he said he served under a, um, captain... oh, what was his name?"

she was laying it on thick, but the man seemed to be buying her excellent acting skills. Heh, they should put her up for an award!

"Oh! I think it was Captain Kuchiki, or something like that."

The hulk of a man visibly winced.

"Is that bad?" she inquired with an innocent bat of her eyes.

"Well, not for _you _missy," the guy said with a wide smile that invited her in on the joke as he leaned forward and said in a confidential tone.

"That Captain there's a real stickler for proper decorum. He don't take too well to having the Reapers in his squad, no matter how new they are, making a bad impression of themselves in public."

"Oh, is that so?" she said sounding interested.

It had clearly been a long shift for the guardian and he was clearly hoping to pass the time with a little companionable and sympathetic company, if only for a few minutes. Gossip was the air and water of all people anyway. The immense guardian of the gate nodded firmly, still smiling.

"Ya might be pleased ta hear that, come morning, this guy'll be paying fer any inconvenience he might be causin' ya now. Most likely the good captain'll have his lieutenant run him through drills until he drops as a lesson to help the guy remember not to cause a nuisance of himself in public. Lieutenant Abarai's a man fond of his drink himself, comin' from Eleventh an' all, but even _he _watches how much he drinks and who he does it with these days."

"I can't say I'm entirely unhappy to hear that," Hisana said with a little more honesty this time. After all, the rickshaw was sort of unwieldy...

"Here, lemme write you up a pass to get him inside."

He jotted down a few quick scribbles on a square of paper, clearly the usual procedure, and handed it over to her.

"It's good for one hour," he told her. "Any longer than that and Squad Two comes looking for you. You don't want them to find you, especially not with everyone on high alert because of the war. So get in, drop him off at his squad hall and get out. Sixth Squad Hall is marked out on the map on the back."

"Oh, thank-you," Hisana said cheerfully. "Thank-you very much. I'll be sure to get to where I'm going."

Not entirely a lie...

The man hooked his meaty fists under the immense, reinforced door of the gate and heaved upwards, allowing her to walk under with her burden rolling along behind her. Hisana tried to pretend that her heart was pounding in exertion and not anticipation of seeing Byakuya again.


	4. Interlude Part I

**Interlude Part I**

His heart pounded so loud and heavy in his chest that it felt like it was banging against his ribcage as he blurred to a sudden stop and looked around him. The air was so thick with humidity that it was like a cloud on his tongue, the stink of stagnant water mixed with human filth that characterized the districts on the outer ring of South Rukongai wafted to his senses on the late afternoon winds. A second glance was all it took to instigate some serious second thoughts about the wisdom of his hasty, panicked decision.

:_No_!: He silently scolded himself.

He'd made up his mind and he couldn't run back now, he had his pride to consider after all. A Kuchiki never backed down once their mind had been made up, it was the source of their honor.

:_But still_...: he thought dubiously, looking around him.

Byakuya Kuchiki, of the great Noble Clan Kuchiki, had never once before in all of his life encountered such... such squalor, such filth, such misery... such _disorganization_. His was a world of rules, of order, of Law. A world that was cleaned, polished and carefully maintained by a small army of servants to neaten, clean and arrange everything into its proper place. The closest he had ever gotten to nature were the well-manicured parks and gardens within the Kuchiki Clan compound. But the world that surrounded him now had no structure, no order or pattern... people just put their meager shacks and shops and shanties wherever they seemed to feel like it, the streets themselves were not neat or maintained (they were not even paved!) but they were trails or hard-packed dirt worn into the twisting rats warren of shanties and hovels that these pathetic specimens endured their squalid existences in. He hated it instantly, the sheer messiness of it all grated on his sense of order in the universe and made him want to command the nearest lowly soul to start cleaning it up and not stop until everything was where it was supposed to be; the run-down shacks should have proper walls, the roofs proper shingles, the streets should be paved a clean, pristine white, the people should certainly not be dressed in rags that were more hole than cloth... it was just... just...

It was just the way things were out along the Rim. It was the last place they'd think to look for him, so it was the best place for him to hide.

:_If the Demon Cat can run away, then so can I_!: He told himself staunchly.

He took a deep breath to fortify himself and immediately wished that he hadn't. The stench that invaded his nostrils was... memorable. He supposed he'd have to get used to it.

:_Yeah, there is **no** possibility of my growing accustomed to this odor_,: he thought to himself.

Or he'd find someplace out here that didn't smell quite so revolting. That was the only other option because there was no way he was turning back.

:_I can't believe they thought they'd just marry me off_!: he thought indignantly.

A young Byakuya Kuchiki had been groomed even more intensively for his future position as Head of Clan Kuchiki after the precipitous departure of the Head of Clan Shihouin. It was as if by pressing him in with his duty on all sides and molding him to the perfect Clan Head they could erase the irresponsible decisions made by another. He had been attending meetings with the Clan Elders for the last several months, since he'd turned sixteen. That morning, his servants had dressed him with especial care and when he'd inquired about it they replied only that they had been given their orders. He walked into the Council room to find not just the full compliment of Clan Elders and a slightly unhappy grandfather lined up down a long table as usual for these meetings, but a young woman maybe a year or two older than himself and a small contingent of those who were obviously her kin. The lady was comely enough, and judging by the exceedingly fine silk kimono and the wealth of hair-jewels she wore, she was certainly upper crust, Byakuya thought he might have crossed paths with her a time or two at parties put on by the other nobility and they might have exchanged greetings. He didn't really remember her name off hand. he had been about to inquire as to why a perfect stranger was let in on a meeting of the Family Elite when the matter of her involvement was put before him... she was to become Byakuya Kuchiki's new bride.

As was normal for these sorts of arrangements, it was all signed, sealed and delivered. The elders had selected her for her fine family background and the fact that their young heir-to-be was passably familiar with her. Byakuya Kuchiki (almost still a boy at sixteen) who had few thoughts in his head besides his next exam in the Academy and the newest matter of the Clan that his Grandfather had set him to learning about, stared in abject horror at the creature brought before him. He couldn't marry! Not yet, and certainly not to some chit he barely even knew! There had to be some mistake, or this was some sort of joke. He looked to his grandfather in mute appeal and the older man who was a surrogate father as well as the honorable head of the clan looked helplessly back at him and reluctantly admitted

"It is a matter of clan stability, thus a matter to be settled by the clan elders. It's out of my hands grandson."

A knifepoint pang of betrayal as sharp as the one he'd felt when he'd received the news of Yoruichi Shihouin's defection to parts unknown in a whirlwind of scandal pierced him. The choice of one's life-companion was one of the biggest and most important decisions a man could make, and to find out that his had been made _for_ him was... Byakuya Kuchiki knew right then and right there that he could not live in a House and Clan that made his decisions for him. He would have no pride as either a Kuchiki or a man if he let a bunch of doddering old men manipulate him like a puppet. It felt like the walls of his world, the order that had always meant security and stability to him, suddenly closed in on him. His breathing grew heavy with a feeling of near-panic as the true implications of his life came crushing down on him. Inexorable as an avalanche, Byakuya Kuchiki would always be expected to play the part of the perfect clan head, obey his elders, be faithful to a wife he didn't know and wasn't sure he even liked, have children by a perfect stranger, follow every rule never stepping outside of the path that had been ordained by him at birth. He wouldn't ever get to be the person he was inside, he would be expected to behave as a noble Kuchiki and one day it wouldn't be an act... the mask will have taken over the man and there'd be nothing left of him. Byakuya had inwardly cried out in panicked denial and quickly flash-stepped out of there. Abruptly he understood what he had to do, if he was ever to have a chance at a real life he was going to have to break away from everything and everyone he knew, go where no-one would know him and he couldn't be found... and find himself.

:_I've never really much thought about what I would ever do with my time if I didn't have all the duties of being a Kuchiki_,: the young man mused to himself.

For so long, his duty to his House and to his noble name had consumed his world... train hard because that was what scions of his noble family did, they became Soul Reapers and inevitably Captains. He'd never before questioned why, he'd never even questioned the fact that he would do such things at all, it was simply his destiny, just the way things were. He had been raised from birth to spend every waking moment defining the ideals of the Seireitei as an example to all the rest of the Nobles of what a true nobleman should be. Just like his father, and his father before him and his before him all the way back to the very founding of the Seireitei. Byakuya had never once imagined his life without all of those rules in place telling him where to go and how to dress and how to act and what to say and when and why... His whole life had been defined by rules and order.

:_And now I guess I'm free of them_,: he thought in mingled disbelief and amazement.

It seemed incomprehensible for a moment. The idea that there wouldn't be anyone looking over his shoulder, not a teacher or tutor or servant or clan elder checking to make certain that everything he did was up to the standards of a Kuchiki. He'd never realized how tense and exhausted all of that expectation had made him feel until it suddenly wasn't there.

:_Now what_?:

Now he was where no-one would find him, and wasn't quite sure what to do. His body decided its first course of action for him, his stomach rumbled loudly reminding him that he hadn't eaten in a while. He shrugged to himself and started wandering around, looking for someplace that would have food. This in and of itself was something of a novelty for him. His meals were always prepared and served to him, even in the academy this was the norm, so looking for food to feed himself with was something he'd never done before. He found a small street-corner market with stalls selling rice, water, and a variety of other food items of questionable-looking origins to his nobly-raised eyes.

He examined the mealy wrinkled-looking fruits that a nearby vendor was selling with a dubious eye and continued on his way, looking for something up to his standards. At last he found something he thought might do, a small basket of sun-ripened red apples being guarded by an enormous bull that had learned to walk on its hind legs. Never having had to pay for anything once in his entire life, ever, Byakuya Kuchiki casually picked the best looking fruit out of the lot of them and plucked it from the basket, continuing on his way without even a sinle glance at the vendor. Naturally the vendor took exception to having his food stolen, and caught his wrist in a tight grip.

Shocked at having his heretofore sacred personage handled (and roughly at that) by the common touch, the young Kuchiki spun on a heel to look upon the face of the personage who was apparently tired of this afterlife and anxious to be sent on to his next incarnation. The shopkeeper toered over him by a good head and a half and was threetimes as big around as the boy, and a solid mass of muscle. Nevertheless, whether or not the young man had a weapon, there was no need for that person to be touching him.

"How dare you manhandle my person?" Byakuya demanded hotly.

"You have to pay for that," the man told the boy who was utterly lacking in common sense (or simple) not to know such a basic thing.

This gave Byakuya pause, for he recalled belatedly hearing of such things as people being required to pay for food they had consumed. He realized then that he, who had lived an existence of such privalage had not thought to bring so simple a thing as money. it rankled him, having to lower his head to a person who was utterly and in all ways beneath him, but the fact remained that he was at fault in this situation... a reparation would have to be made though his pride disliked the humility that the situation had forced upon him.

Byakuya Kuchiki stiffly forced his back to incline a few degrees (not deeply, mind, there was no need to carry things too far after all) and forced out an apology for the misunderstanding.

"Do you know what we do to theives when we catch them?" the meaty vendor demaded, grabbing the young man's thin, fine wrist and forcing it onto the nearest flat surface.

"No," the boy replied honestly, mystified. "And I am not a thief. I informed you priviously that it was a misunderstanding. I will see that you are compensated."

The nerve of the man! Accusing _him_ (a Kuchiki!) of being a theif! Such an insult was not to be borne. And that rough treatment begged for a lesson in humility, after all just who did this man think he was to treat a person of Byakuya's exalted rank in such a fashion?

"You took without paying, that makes you a thief," the man replied with unrelenting logic and a glint in his eye that Byakuya could not quite like.

His dawning suspicion was confirmed when the man pulled out a short, nicked and somewhat rusty knife from the belt of his ragged yukata and raised it above his head. With his gaze centered on Byakuya's wrist there could be no doubt but that he meant to sever his hand. For a split second the young Kuchiki heir was taken aback, such a severe punishment for such a small thing as an apple! But then he saw the anticipatory look on the vendors face and came to understand that he was the sort who enjoyed inflicting pain, and probably on the weak. All feeling of humility and debt dissolved in an instant and the young heir felt absolutely no compunctions about forecully releasing himself from the grip of the bully and teaching him a lesson about what happened to idiots who dared to handle persons of exhalted rank in such an ignoble manner. With a twist of his wrist Byakuya freed himself from the grip of the vendor and seized the mans own wrist, it was another blur of motion as the young warrior-trained man twisted the taller, larger man around and sent him flying into his own booth with a textbook throw that would have made his trainer say well done for the day.

"I've wasted enough time on you, I think," the young man said with pardonable smugness and turned his back to leave.

The vendor however was not done with him. He gave a bellow of rage, rolled to his feet and charged at the back of the young man. Byakua flashed out of the way in a blur of motion, knocking the vendor over on his way with a well aimed kick to his knees and the burly man went down facefirst into the ground which was still soggy from a recent rain.

"You're a hundred years too late if the likes of you thinks to defeat me. I will graciously accept your surrender for today so consider yourself fortunate," the young Kuchiki informed him arrogantly, unable to hide a smile at the sight of his opponent humbled before him, as was proper.

The vendor was less than amused. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled, from stalls and alleys around the dilapidated market there emerged a number of crude and ragged looking thugs with scars to mark the passage of numerous street fights and rumbles on thier skin.

"My older brother owns this turf," the vendor informed him. "Nobody messes with us!"

at a signal from the vendor the thugs circled in and rushed at the young Kuchiki heir at once. Byakuya, for all of his numerous years of training had never been in a true fight before, and certainly not one where there were no rules. It came rushing at him all of a sudden that this truly was not Seireitei, there were no rules, no healers, no concerned elders or teachers to keep things from getting out of hand. These men truly meant to kill him and in this, his first true fight, Byakuya would be fighting for his life. he had no weapon except for the training he had been given. He thought for a moment as ten men, all hardened fighters many times larger and more powerful than he, came rushing in on him that it would be wiser to flee. Certainly such ordinary souls with no reiatsu to speak of an not the first notion of how to flash step would not be able to keep up with the flashstep of a Kuchiki. But his Kuchiki pride would never countenance running away from a band of untrained commoners and it did not matter that he was unarmed and unprepared... Byakuya Kuchiki was a Kuchiki and he would not shame his noble ancestors by running away from inferiors like a child.

Byakuya stilled himself and forced his nerves to steady, doing it by the number as his instructors had taught him on the training grounds. He counted the number and direction of his opponents in his head, mentally assesing thier skills from afar and Flash-stepping to the fartest of them to keep them disorinted. He picked of the ones on the outside first, grabbing a wooden sword from the first of his fallen opponents. Killing such inferior rabble would be an insult to him as a swordsman. The first four fell to well placed elegant strikes of his blade. Beofre the rabbly could understand that their target had moved itself, Byakuya flashed over to the other side of the cleared area where the fight was taking place. He pulled the ragged tarp that had previously shaded the vendors stall up from the ground and released it over the heads of three more of his enemies, pulling the sides in tight and then pushing, shoving, and finally hitting the lumps of humans trapped inside of the impromptu net. There were curses and shouts as the lumps continued to wriggle. Byakuya tried not to feel amused by it, but... well, it was funny. While he was occupied with his amusment two more thugs thought to sneak up behind him, one had a twine rope streched between his hands, ready to use as a garrote and the other had an actual sword (albeit a badly used one). The young Kuchiki heir, with training in such things, sensed them easily. He turned slightly to glance behind him and flash stepped to the side then flashed again until he was standing behind one of them and casually pushed one clumsy clod into the other. They fell down in a tangled heap and as a coup de grace Byakuya flash-stepped over to the vendor who was the cause of the ruckus.

"You are defeated," he informed the man. "Accept it. It is regrettable that your men were injured but I did give you a chance to accept my apology. It is my wish that our paths do not cross again."

With that Byakuya delivered a light tap to the mans temple with the butt of his wooden sword and strolled out of the marketplace, tossing an extra apple that he had liberated on his way out into the air. Fighting was hungry work after all.

"You shouldn't have done that," a voice murmured to him in soft, melodic tone.

Byakuya glanced sideways to see who had spoken. A young woman dressed in a ragged and worn yukata of a dusty lavender color sat properly on a large, up-jutting stone at the edge of the market. There was something sort of fae and pixyish about her, like she was some sort of nature spirit from out of the tales from the human world, come to spirit him away. Her slightly messy hair was glossy black, her skin pale as a lily, her manner as demure and elegant as any fine lady's, when she raised her head to meet his gaze enquiringly her eyes were the deepest amethyst, like two bottomless pools of twilight. She smiled gently at him, a little Mona Lisa smile, as if she held a secret sorrow and a secret joy he could never begin to comprehend, and added

"That man you have just defeated is the younger brother of Toki Amuro."

"I have never heard of this Toki Amuro," Byakuya replied, uncaringly.

And if he had never heard of someone, then they were no-one of consequence to him.

"Then you are clearly not from around here," the girl replied. "You must realize that Amuro is this sector's War-lord."

Byakuya looked at her blankly. What in the world was a war-lord? Still, it would be beneath him to have to admit to such ignorance, especially to a commoner so he simply said

"Is that so?"

The girl looked at him with those eyes that seemed to peel back the layers of flesh and bone to arrow right down into his very soul and read its contents like a page of print for she next said

"Where have you been hiding all of your life that you don't know what a war-lord is?"

"I never said I-" Byakuya began defensively, but the girl, impertinently! interrupted him. Such a thing had never happened to Byakuya Kuchiki before, maybe once or twice his elders had overridden him, but he had never been cut off by an inferior before. A servant would lose thier position for such brash behavior certainly.

"This is the outer ring of the Rukongai, and many of the adults here are one short step away from being Hollows themselves, murderers and thieves, the lowest of the low," she explained. "Survival out here is very difficult, food is scarce and fresh water is hard to come by. The strong ones usually band together into war-bands, with a war-lord at the top and all of his thanes beneath him."

"Thanes?" Byakuya questioned.

"Thanes are the fighters that swear themselves in blood-allegiance to their warlord. They usually start out as petty gangsters who are violent enough and strong enough to cow the people around them respecting them out of fear. That fearsome reputation then gets them entrance into the nearest local gang. They act as enforcers for the rule of their warlord and fighters in the constant rumbles and turf-wars between different gangs. Each gang has a specific area that they claim as their own, extorting money and goods and services from ordinary people in exchange for "protection" from rival gangs."

"I do not see what that has to do with me," Byakuya replied.

"Just to be a thane means that they are strong fighters already, warlords don't tolerate weakness in those they expect to fight in their rumbles. So Thanes are all very strong and they don't tolerate rivals in thier own turf. As far as the warlord is concerned, if you're not one of them, you're an enemy. You've just made yourself into a target."

"Those fighters were no match for me," Byakuya said dismissively.

"Those fighters were the weaker ones under Amuro's command," the girl replied. "There are thanes a lot stronger than them and they'll be looking for you. You should find someplace safe to lie low for a while."

That brought the sheltered young man's attention to another matter he had not considered in his decision to run away from home. Byakuya had never once had to contend with the idea of being without a home. He belonged to the First House of the Seireitei, it was ridiculous to imagine that there would come a day when he would be unsheltered by a roof and four walls. The girl again seemed to read his mind as she said

"You don't have any place to go, do you?"

Byakuya looked rather sulkily back at her. She couldn't be any older than he was certainly, and she had the tone and countenance of a Lady some years his senior. He looked around him at the run-down hovels and shacks barely able to stay upright dubiously. Surely he could not be expected to stay in one of these!

"I'm a drifter too," the girl said.

What, did she think that because she was helping him by telling him things that made them comrades now? What would someone like her possibly have in common with someone like him?

"It's not much, but I have a small place made up on the other side of the river. It's getting closer to sunset now, Amuro won't send out men to recruit you until tomorrow anyway."

"How do you know that?" Byakuya asked wondering slightly if she was working for him, or worse, setting him up for an ambush.

"Simple. First those men are going to have to recover, and then they'll have to go to where the warlord keeps court, at the inn of the Pigs Squeal, work of the courage to inform their fearless leader about how they were all beaten by a twelve year old-"

"I am not twelve!" he said offended.

"By that time," she went on as if she hadn't heard him. "The warlord's thanes will all be drunk or mostly drunk, and hunting you down will have to wait until they've woken from their stupor and gotten rid of their hangovers."

Byakuya considered her words for a long moment. They were entirely sensible if one took in the environment and likely temperament of the kinds of people he was dealing with.

"Very well," he nodded to the girl. "I will allow you to assist me."

The girl looked back at him, a little non-plussed, but shrugged her shoulders and said

"My name is Hisana, what's yours?"

:_Well, I can't exactly own up to being the missing heir to the title of Kuchiki_,: the young man though to himself.

Fortunately it appeared that surnames were not common here so all he would have to do would be to allow this strange girl the intimacy of casually using his given name. Only the very closest of his family (and that annoying demon cat) were allowed to address him by his first name without appellation. It seemed very strange to allow someone he had just met such a familiarity but...

:_I guess it'll be nice to know who I am without the name Kuchiki_,: the former heir said.

"My name is Byakuya. Just Byakuya," he said.

"I like your name," Hisana said meeting his grey gaze with her own liquid-dark eyes and he was surprised to find himself noting that she had perhaps one of the sweetest smiles he'd ever seen.

The young man wasn't really one for paying attention to those outside of his immediate circle, as a Kuchiki he had always lived in a city of distance, keeping people at arms length and regarding those around them with the measuring stick of how useful a connection they would make to the Family. Aside of perhaps the demon cat, who was an allowable (if annoying) exception because of her status as the head of another First Family, Byakuya had never had any real friends who could look at his face without being unconsciously aware of their differing ranks. This young woman had met his gaze with a fearlessness born out of ignorance, and having someone meet his eyes without assessing him made him feel... surprisingly good. There was also something there, something almost magnetic about the mysterious girl. He felt a pull there; as soft, insistent and relentless as the tug of the current in a slow moving stream.

"We should get going if we're going to make it back to where I'm staying and still have light to cook by," she prompted him, turning away to lead him to her lodgings.

She led him through a golden field of shoulder-high wild grain, picking up a basket carefully hidden among the stalks on her way through. Byakuya paused a moment to enjoy the feeling of the westering sun on his face and the gentle sigh and shush of the wind making the tall grasses wave like the ocean. Hisana continued to harvest the grain with her basket already half-full as she went along on an unmarked route only she seemed to know about. Byakuya was forced to keep close to her, or loose her in the tall sea of grass. Once out of the field of wild wheat (or barley, or rye, Byakuya had no idea which it might be, since the closest he'd ever gotten to grain came already cooked and served to him in a bowl by his servants) Hisana led him through a small copse of trees and down to a brook that trickled around and over stones. They crossed the brook over a fallen log and clamored over the tumble of rocks on the other side then she led him back up a hill and into another copse of small trees that grew thickly together nearby. The trees were mostly small pines, low brush growing close to the ground and taller (but still thin and very young) trees, mostly birch and yew, growing tightly packed together. She followed a very circuitous route through the trees, twisting and turning in and out on not particular path.

"Aren't you taking the long way on purpose?" Byakuya demanded impatiently.

Hisana looked back at him with a knowledgeable gaze and said

"The route is twisted up for a reason Byakuya. If I take the most direct route back to where I am staying it will eventually form a path that will create gaps in the trees and expose myself to human predators. I am a drifter woman that no-one would miss, I would be a fool not to be cautious."

Byakuya simply shut his mouth after that. It was clear that his new lifestyle was going to take more consideration than he had originally thought. The sum of his education with regards to living independently came from the few Hero-tales he had read on rainy afternoons as a young boy, and they had certainly made it seem easy enough; find a cave or some abandoned ruins, pull a few trout from out of the river, make a nice fire with the dry wood lying around and enjoy the fruits of nature. He had not considered that there would be anything dangerous nearby, after all, he always equated sleeping-quarters with safety since his own were absolutely sacrosanct.

At last they came to the place where Hisana had made her shelter and it wasn't at all what Byakuya had been expecting. For one thing, it resembled nothing remotely like what he would have considered adequate shelter, there were not even any walls! The young hangdog vagrant had taken four saplings that were growing in proximity to one another, stripped them of most of their branches and bent the tops of them, lashing them together so that they formed a dome-shape, and securing a much-patched and worn canvas cloth as a covering. The edges were further secured by weighting them to the ground with rocks. There was a small firepit nearby with a dented and abused little pot nestled in the coals and covered by a flat peice of board. On arriving at the camp, Hisana crossed over to the far side where a large, tall pine tree sheltered a bundle of sticks and small logs (not split and obviously gathered by hand) and looked up into the branches. She untied a piece of rope that Byakuya had not noticed before and lowered a small sack of rough cloth to the ground.

"Good!" Hisana said with obvious relief. "It looks like there were no animals in it. Sometimes they do that you know, racoons are especially terrible, those horrid little beasties! So clever!"

"Most girls I've met think they're kind of cute," Byakuya said without thinking.

He himself didn't see the appeal in the furry little rodents but...

"Most girls you've met have probably never had their supper robbed from them four days in a row I'll bet," Hisana said with a slightly irritated look.

Even her frown was gentle.

"Does hiding your food in trees work?" he asked.

"Sometimes," she said with a small shrug. "Its the best I can manage, and it keeps the animals from rampaging through my camp usually. Could you start a fire for me?"

Byakuya would have loved to have been able to comply with her simple request, but he had never had to start a fire before. The servants came in in the morning before he woke and banished the slight chill of the air by laying the fire.

"I, um..." he said with an embarrassed smile.

He was a smart man, he could manage so simple and homely a task as that certainly! He'd seen the servants do it lots of times. How hard could it be?

"There's flint and a striker inside the pot near the fire," Hisana directed him, going through her meager stores.

Byakuya found the two of them and started in. He discovered after his first five attempts to strike a spark and get it to stay that the task was a great deal trickier than he had thought it would be. A few moments later the girl who had taken him in joined him at his place next to the fire pit and gently took the fire strikers from him then showed him how to make a nest of wood shavings, birch bark and twigs, settle with his back to the wind so his nest was sheltered by his body, strike the flint just so and get the sparks to land on the pile, blow on them gently to get them to catch and then slowly build the tiny flame into a small fire. Byakuya felt a little miffed at having to be shown such a task, as a Kuchiki, there should be nothing that he was incapable of and it rankled his pride to be unable to perform a household task.

"It takes some practice," the girl said with a gentle smile. "And it is far more difficult on windy or rainy days."

With that she took the small cookpot that she had filled with water and what looked to be fish caught from a nearby river and placed it over the fire to boil.

"I do not have an extra blanket, and I see you have none of your own. You seem a young man who honors his word, if you promise that you will offer me no harm I will share my own with you for this night," Hisana said in a business-like manner.

Byakuya gawped at her in open shock for a long moment at her bold and simple statement. Never in all of his life had he ever heard a woman speak so!

"Unless of course, you wish to sleep next to the fire, but I warn you, sleeping out in the open is dangerous," she advised him as she added some wild vegetables and a handful of the grains she'd harvested earlier to the simmering pot of stew.

Byakuya honestly did not know how to reply to any of her statement. True he had not thought to bring anything with him to cover him while he slept, nor anything else for that matter, he was so accustomed to having everything he needed or wanted there for the asking that the mundane details of supporting himself had never occurred to him.

"Er, ah, thank-you for your generosity," Byakuya at last managed to settle on when it became apparent that she did expect some form of answer and it at last came to him that the young woman was taking a great personal risk trusting him so much to take care of him.

The young woman smiled that serene and gentle smile, that one that seemed to hold both secret sorrow and secret joy in it, at him. Had Byakuya ever known his mother he would have recognized the smile as belonging to a mother's kindness. All he was really aware of was that it seemed to work a strange sort of alchemy on him, thawing something inside of him he was not aware had ever frozen over, and loosening something inside his chest he had never noticed was tightened. He was nearly shocked to find an answering smile form unbidden on his own face, small, shy and uncertain.

"My heart says that you are not the kind of young man who would offer harm to a woman who offers her trust to you, so if you are cold I will not turn you away, Byakuya."

Byakuya Kuchiki looked down as his face flushed and the smile that came so very rarely to his countenance grew at her kind words. Suddenly his tongue felt tied in knots and he cleared his throat. There was a a sort of fae look in her bottomless eyes even as she did something so mundane as stirring the pot of mystery soup that caught and held him near-spellbound. They lapsed into a comfortable sort of silence as dinner cooked over the flickering flames. Byakuya tried to ignore the new awareness that told him the light of the campfire soaked into her pale skin and made it glow liquid gold and that her hands and wrists and body was as delicate as the fine ladies he was accustomed to in the Seireitei, as though the roughness of the place that surrounded her dared not touch her. She looked more comfortable deep in the wood, like it was where she truly belonged, a shy wild thing like a doe to start at the least sign of trouble, or some Nature Spirit from out of a tale lured away from her world hidden away deep in the wood by the sound of music nearby.

"I would not for the world harm you Hisana," Byakuya replied.

They ate the dinner in companionable silence. Byakuya was partly absorbed in thoughts of his own, and partly trying to study the other young person across the campfire when he thought she might not notice his interest. He had never really interacted with people his own age before, all of the Clan Elders were at least as old as his grandfather, the servants at the estate were as old as his father and the other noble children tended to be a little intimidated by his rank despite the fact that he was the same age as they were. None of them had ever once used his first name, with or without the appellation. For all of her apparent friendliness, Hisana seemed incurious about him, she asked no prying questions, nor did she say anything to him that might lead him to revealing anything about himself. There was no doubt to his mind that Hisana knew there was something out of the ordinary about him, but she seemed content to let his secrets remain secrets. After dinner she took his makeshift bowl and showed him how to clean it using moss and a rock and bury the remains of dinner. The last of the stew she filled with what looked like grain meal, rice and some sort of bean and buried the cookpot halfway in the soil right next to the fire to tend overnight for breakfast in the morning. Byakuya had never eaten the same meal twice in row but it seemed economical and she was sharing her food and shelter with him so he had no call to complain.

As the night began to chill Byakuya forcibly set aside his ingrained nobles scruples (but only after much internal debate) and nervously walked over and sat next to Hisana who was mending what Byakuya would have called a kitchen rag earlier that day. She wrapped the sole blanket around his shoulders and moved a little closer so that they shared body-warmth. he tried to ignore the sudden pounding in his chest, a feeling which the girl seemed immune to for she continued to mend her garment with perfect serenity.

"I will be moving on in the morning," she announced quietly to him.

"Moving on? Where?" Byakuya asked, surprised and more than a little nettled.

It seemed like she had a perfectly pleasant place to stay right where she was, and it irritated him that he should be asked to move right as he had gotten comfortable.

"I had already finished with this place today and it was to be my last night here anyway," Hisana said, a hint of mysterious sadness in her voice. "But now that you have offended the local warlord it is doubly imperative that I leave for another place as soon as may be."

Byakuya was silent, as he couldn't fault her logic.

"You may come along with me if that is your wish, or not," Hisana said, as if it made no difference to her.

For a moment Byakuya was a bit nettled that he should be of so little consequence to someone else. He was accustomed to a great deal of attention and respect being paid to him, he was the heir to the Kuchiki name after all, bowing and scraping and homage paid to him simply came with the territory.

"I have no-where else to go so I suppose it is no inconvenience to accompany you," he replied a bit stiffly. his noble dignity was a bit offended at being considered of so little consequence to a woman who was far beneath his station. He was half-tempted to reveal his identity to her and watch her fall over herself, like everyone else of his acquaintance he had ever met always had, to make him satisfied and comfortable. Byakuya realized hard on the thought that temptation brought out that he did not want this girl, this Hisana to touch her forehead to the ground (as was proper for a person of her station when being addressed by a noble of his rank) at him. There was something about her, it was hard to describe. She was like some wild thing not ever meant to be caged by the laws and mores of man.

After a small while, Hisana yawned delicately over her work, decided that she had sewn enough for the night and finished off her stitches then banked the fire. She watched him for a very, very long wordless moment, her eyes staring deep into him, weighing him, measuring him with a beautiful serenity he had only ever seen on the face of Captain Unohana, an Old Soul who had reportedly seen the founding of Sereitei itself long ago. Hisana seemed to reach an internal agreement with herself for, wordlessly, she turned toward the colder air of her low sleeping accommodation and beckoned that he should follow her. He had never obeyed a command before, wordless or otherwise but she seemed to have a strange sort of power over him and so Byakuya followed her into her tent. A moment later he was exceedingly glad that the darkness of the wood hid his face for Hisana pulled him down into a makeshift bed made of rushes cut from the nearby river, curled up to him trusting as a kitten, and pulled the blanket over them both. If he had ever gotten into such a position with any other young woman of his acquaintance her family would have seen them married on the spot! He had never slept with another person in the room with him let alone the same bed, and yet he found the gentle, quiet sound of her breathing and the soothing flow of her small reiatsu to be so very restful that he soon drifted off.

* * *

**This and the following chapters were not originally part of this fic, but I decided part way through that it needed something, and this little germ of an idea took root and would not leave me in peace. This seemed like a good spot to put it in. I want to thank everyone for the wonderful reveiws thus far, it's very encouraging to see how you all seem to like it. I hope you enjoy this chapter and the ones following it. Consider it to be a mini-arc inserted before the rest of the story resumes.**


	5. Interlude Part II

Interlude Part 2

Byakuya, despite being titled nobility, had always kept early hours because it was expected that he would one day join to military and so he had formed the habit of keeping military hours in preparation for his eventual career in the Soul Reapers. Hisana was still sleeping as the sunlight began to lighten the sky at dawn and Byakuya took a long moment to study her face. She looked so terribly sad in her sleep, as if she were suffering a dream that wasn't quite a night-terror but was fulled with such misery that it might as well be one.

:_And what else might she dream of in a place like this, pray_?: Byakuya asked of himself a liytle wryly.

It seemed unfair that a person whose days were filled with such misery and lack of comfort should also have dream that plague them with unhappiness as well. It sort of made him want to take that unhapiness away. it was a new feeling for him, for, aside of maybe a few others, Byakuya had never really given much thought to people's happiness or unhappiness in general, figuring that it was up to the individual whether they were happy or unhappy.

:_She has so very little, and yet she shared what little she had with a stranger she had just met_,: Byakuya thought with a feeling akin to wonder.

He had always considered himself to be reasonably modest for a man of his station, he did not flaunt his wealth or his rank. Even if he did not invite the confidences of his servants he was never mean or overly demanding to them, and yet this woman, lower of rank and station than the least of his servants, had taught him what true humility felt like. She had taken him into her shelter at possible risk to herself, not knowing what kind of man he might or might not be, shared her hard-gotten food with him, kept him warm at night (also at possible risk to herself) all asking for nothing in return.

:_Strange that this person who is so low in rank and stature that Seireitei would laugh at the idea of taking her in would show me the true meaning of nobility_,: he thought to himself.

He felt so different that morning. All his mornings before this, he had woken in the same place, eaten much the same things, greeted by the same faces. Everything was safe, contained and predictable, and yet now here he was in a world so entirely different from anything he had ever known. Instead of fearful at all of the changes, Byakuya felt curiously alive and invigorated, as if he had spent his life until that point in a state of half-sleep then finally awoke to find himself on stranger shores but feeling more free and awake and alive than ever before.

The girl, clearly distressed in her sleep, woke abruptly with a start and stared at him for a long, confused and clearly nervous moment but then sense and memory clearly filtered through the fog of sleep for she smiled a little hesitantly at him.

"If you will pull the breakfast from the coals, i wish to bathe and make myself presentable," the young Rukongai woman said, her cheeks pinkening and looking as modest as any ordinary maiden at being caught in deshabille.

he obediently pulled the pot from the fire as Hisana headed to the nearby river with a cloth and thin sliver of soap to clean herself off with. Byakuya was halfway through his own portion of food when a thin, familiar scream reached him. he froze for a second, uncertain he'd heard anything, but it was quickly followed by another scream to confirm it. Byakuya, having learned his lesson about being unarmed, picked up the rusty and mal-treated sword he had liberated from one of the thugs the day earlier and flashed off in the direction of Hisana's cry for help. He arrived in a blur of motion to see two young thugs, maybe a year or two older than he himself was (and thus, likely ten times the trouble) wading across the small stream in Hisana's direction. Hisana for her part was rabbiting off as quickly as she could over rough terrain. Smart girl. She obviously could not fight them so her best chance was to outrun them. Byakuya came out of his flash-step on an upjutting rock at the bank of the stream, right in between the two thugs and their intended prey. He pointed the sword at them.

"Leave her be," he commanded them, fully expecting to be obeyed.

The two older kids laughed and smiled feral smiles at him, clearly thinking they'd have twice the fun; a fight to warm up with and then on to more entertaining prey. Byakuya frowned at them, he was unaccustomed to being ignored and it did not settle well with him.

"I despise having to repeat myself," Byakuya added. "You shall leave, at once."

"Or what?" one of them demanded of him in an obnoxious tone.

"Or you shall be thrashed like the vile miscreant you clearly are," Byakuya replied in a tone of belabored patience.

The two boys did not wait for any further words to pass between them but rushed at the young Kuchiki heir at once. it was the work of three short, clean strokes on the part of the young, but exceedingly well-trained warrior to have them on the ground, groaning from various blows he had used to incapacitate them.

:_Give them some credit for tenacity if not for sense_,: Byakuya was forced to add a moment later when, nothing daunted, and clearly deciding that Byakuya's earlier victory had been nothing more than luck, the two boys pulled themselves up and moved to circle in on him. Byakuya stood still, in a ready position, waiting for the idiots to make their move.

"Ow!" one of them cried at the same moment Byakuya's finely honed senses detected a meaty thud.

It was followed shortly after by another thud and a cry of sharp pain from the other assailant. A third came not soon after. Byakuya tracked the direction of the stones clearly being launched at them and spotted the young woman had had come to rescue, standing steadily on higher ground and whirling some sort of long weighted string around her head. he realized a second later what it was when another stone came catapulting in an arc at the flesh of the nearest young man. The sling was a plebeian weapon, utterly beneath the notice of any citizen born of the Seireitei, but it was an effective weapon nonetheless as Byakuya was shown when the girl managed to hit one of the attackers on the head. He dropped limply, utterly unconscious if not dead. Byakuya took that moment, while his friend was distracted to attack, knocking the other one out of commission.

Hisana turned back to camp quickly with a nod of thanks in his direction for the assistance. Byakuya wondered for a moment if she had actually needed his help or not. He found her back at the campground quickly breaking camp with practiced efficiency and loading all of her worldly possessions in a worn, deep-sided basket with leather straps to secure it on a person's back. Byakuya almost couldn't imagine having so little in the way of possessions that everything one owned could be carried on ones back. And yet, within the hour, Hisana was ready to leave.

"Come, follow me," she said over her shoulder as she headed off into the woods.

Byakuya had never felt quite so useless as he did when he simply followed behind her like a stray pup.

They spent the better part of the day walking through the thick tangled wood, down rocky slopes and over thin mountain streams. During that time, when the deer-track paths Hisana had found for them to follow were relatively smooth, they conversed, stiltedly at first (Byakuya was unaccustomed to interaction with people who were not adults, and Hisana was clearly accustomed to being alone much of the time) but with greater warmth as the day drew on.

"Have you traveled this way your whole life?" he asked at one point. "Just packing up and going wherever you want to?"

That seemed like a nice life to him! No cares, no responsibilities, no old people hounding him about the honor of the family and the sacredness of Tradition and on and on.

"No, not my whole life," Hisana said quietly.

There seemed a slight sadness to her words. Byakuya was tempted to ask her about it, but there was an aura about her that discouraged inquiry.

"You seem a capable fighter," she remarked. "I have never seen anybody move the way you do. And... you get hungry. Like me."

"That's because we have reiatsu," he said casually.

At Hisana's blank, inquiring look, Byakuya was surprised at having to explain what so simple and fundamental a thing as spiritual power meant to a person who clearly had never come across the information before. He preened a bit as Hisana seemed suitably impressed with his knowledge.

"So that's why I get dizzy and faint so often?" she asked after he was finished.

"Yes," he replied.

"Why doesn't anyone else faint or feel hunger? Everyone else I have encountered except for- er, I mean most people out here only eat food for something to do."

"Think of it like this," Byakuya said, fishing for a workable analogy.

The best he could come up with was comparing ordinary souls to clay jars with covers that held only a tiny amount of "water" in them and Reapers and Soul Reapers as being more like mountain springs, the water of which evaporates away only to be replaced by more water from within.

"Isn't there a way to stop my water from evaporating away? It's very troublesome to need food all the time and I could keep looking for- I mean, it would be easier to keep moving if I didn't have to worry about having to replace my energy."

"I have never encountered a way to take someone's spiritual energy, and we should both pray that no-one ever comes up with such a method."

"Why is that?"

Byakuya tried to explain it so that Hisana would understand the gravity of the idea and all of its terrible repercussions. If someone could absorb the power in ordinary souls and add it to his own, then his power would have no outside limit. With enough spiritual power he could break down the barrier between his own spirit and the reality around him, giving him a power that could in time resemble a god. In short, he would be too powerful to be stopped.

"Ah, that would be bad I suppose. It would certainly be a difficult problem for those in the forbidden city to solve, I doubt that there's anything that a person like you or I could do about it, we'd just have to hide and wait until they were able to protect us."

"Who says that we could do nothing?" Byakuya demanded, his nobles pride a bit irked at the implication that he was helpless.

"The Soul Reapers who live in Sereitei are the ones who hunt down and destroy the Hollows that crop up out here," Hisana said, as though explaining it to a child. "They are the ones who have those swords that kill those things, so clearly if it is a matter of souls with great strength then it is a matter that only they can deal with. You said that ordinary souls can't even get close to a person with strong reiatsu without being affected by it, it would take a soul with unusual strength to even get close, am I right?"

"Probably," he grumbled. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Do people out here really think of Seireitei as protecting them? I was always told they resented u- the people who live in Sereitei but that it was their duty to protect them no matter what they thought about it."

"I suppose most might," Hisana said. "I'm pretty sure that the Seireitei is so distant to all of us out here, especially those with only ordinary spiritual power, that it might as well be on the moon. I look at them as protectors I suppose because one of them once saved my life."

There was a such a strange look on her face then, Byakuya couldn't have described it as reminiscence, she looked so incredibly sad that he felt he had to change the subject.

"So when you move to a new place do you always know where to find food?"

Byakuya would rather have fallen on his own sword than admitted it, but breakfast from that morning was already beginning to wear off.

"Usually it is merely a question of knowing where to look, when I must search through urban areas, it can be more challenging, but I find that a few traded favors go a long way."

Indeed the faint trail Hisana had been following for most of than morning was beginning to widen out more into a track. Byakuya could see the beginnings of another small city of shanties mushrooming out from a sluggish, smelly river. The place was not nearly the size of Seireitei and looked nothing like a city as he was accustomed to thinking of one, the streets were all dusty instead of being immaculate white and neatly swept, the denizens were all dressed in clothes that were nearly more hole than cloth (and several wore garments that were patched together from different garments). But there was a strange sort of liveliness to the air that he didn't see often, the marketplace, though the goods were not as plentiful or if as fine a quality as the goods sold where he was from was still abuzz with energy. Men and women bought and sold hand-made goods of leather and wood, or the rarer goods made of metal lie axes, plowheads or cutting utensils (pitted and badly sharpened, but at least recognizable). Other booths had woven baskets and straw sandals and hats. In the center was a more or less square ring of vendors selling different sorts of foodstuffs; bread, fish, some fruits, and one booth had a small fryer and barbeque grilling what looked to be squirrel. Byakuya had never heard of squirrel being on the list of comestibles. Incongruously, wandering here and there without any attempt to corral them or keep them off the streets were chickens, ducks and squab.

"It looks busy here," Byakuya noted.

The market seemed to be mostly crowded with those who apparently had nothing else to do with their time, men and women of all different ages met and gossiped or casually looked over wares while discussing things of minor importance. Mingled in among the obviously poor and bored were persons who looked a slight cut above abject poverty. Men wearing yukata that were actually all in one piece with only minor mending strutted around in groups, a few of them bearing rusty, maltreated swords tucked into their sashes. Women who, to judge by their more colorful and provocatively displayed clothing, were clearly some form of courtesan swanned about trading gossip with old and young alike.

"Who are those people?" Byakuya questioned, pointing over to a large knot of rowdy-looking men who looked like they had just strolled straight out of eleventh squad.

"Don't point!" Hisana murmured pushing his arm down surreptitiously. "Those men belong to the local warlord, of this place Shin Amuro."

"Don't tell me, let me guess; he's related to the Toki Amuro of yesterday," Byakuya said dryly.

"His brother," Hisana confirmed.

"How many brothers does this man have?" he wondered rhetorically. "And you sure seem to be well informed for a drifter, how is it you know so much?"

"Information is the coin of the realm around here. If I do not have many goods I can carry, the Grannies will always pay coin for word from other sectors, but it can be a gamble."

"HUh?" Byakuya asked blankly.

"Just watch," Hisana said.

Hisana led him through the crowded paths of the marketplace, past the small ring of food vendors and into the very center of the web of streets and stalls. There at the center was a large stone jutting up from the ground. Sitting on a cushion on that stone like buddha on top of a dais was quite possibly the oldest woman Byakuya had ever seen. Hisana climbed up the rough stone steps and sat seiza properly in front of the woman, from seemingly out of no-where the younger girl pulled out two coins of low denomination and placed them in a small wooden bowl at the old woman's feet.

"Speak your wisdom," the old woman said.

"In the territory of Koji Katsumoto there is a small gang of children with spiritual pressure who have challenged three of his thanes to a battle tournament over a fishing shack by the river, and they won."

"This is news," the old woman said, sounding impressed. "Have you anything more about that, I would pay extra."

"Yes, three days later that same shack was invaded by a band of raiders, naturally rumored to have been composed of the warlord's thanes, the one who had reiatsu defeated them it is said without having to touch them."

Three coins from the old woman joined the coind hisana had placed in the bowl. The girl made them disappear leaving behind her original two coins.

"In the territory Kai Tachin, Madam Ivory who runs the Golden Waters has thrown her support behind the younger warlord."

"A dangerous game that, but sadly, old news," the old lady reached for the coins but Hisana stopped her, saying

"The news I bring is about her pet healer. It is rumored that the sudden downturn in the health of the dominant warlord and some of his stronger thanes may have been the result of a certain herbal mix making its way into their feasts. The warlord does not want the information getting out of course but it is said that he is confined to his bed and unable to fight. There is unrest in his territory."

Six coins were placed into the cup.

"I will pay this much," the old woman showed a handful of ten coins two of which were silver instead of copper. "To know the exact nature of the poison."

Hisana pulled a very small clay vial out from her basket.

"I was hired to play erhu at the party and I recognized the healer from the Golden Waters sneaking out through the back when I went to go and... pluck a persimon blossom. I was too late to stop her but I looked at the food and the next day found a powder in among her supplies that smelled similar. I believe it was this one."

The coins were placed in the bowl and Hisana again made them disappear. This went on for a little while longer, once or twice, the information she had was not deemed valuable or recent enough to be valuable, but mostly, the girl steadily gained coins.

"Do you have more information to share girl?" the old granny asked.

"I believe I had better stop here," Hisana said. "Lots of money always means lots of trouble, but I do have two questions for you Granny."

"Go ahead," when Hisana moved to put two coins into the bowl to pay for it she stopped her saying, "You have given me supper for weeks, the first one will be free with the understanding that I will see you again when you have fresh news to impart."

"Of course. My first question is; have you or anyone you know of, seen or heard of a girl, five years of age, black hair, dark blue eyes, by the name of Rukia?"

"Rukia?... Sadly no, but I will keep an ear out for the name."

Hisana put two copper coins in the bowl and said

"My last question is; have you news of any events going on that would hire an erhu player for a decent wage? I have no small amount of skill."

"I have. Madam Amber is hosting a marriage-alliance negotiation between the thanes of two local warlords the day after tomorrow. She has some in-house muscicians, but most of her girls will be serving the drinks and running the entertainments. You could ask her to hire you but it will not be a permanent position."

"That will suit me well, I thank you Granny."

With that, Hisana stood and signaled to Byakuya that she was done there. The two of them melted into the crowd.

"What was all of that?" Byakuya asked once they were out of sight of the old woman who had an uncannily sharp gaze, Byakuya was pretty certain he could not have fooled her into thinking he was just an ordinary traveler.

"People get bored out here in Rukongai and like to alleviate the boredom by gossiping about each other and about whats going on in other warlords territories. Think of it as the Rukongai version of discussing politics. The Grannies are in every market, right in the middle, if you have information that you think they will find worthwhile you can risk a coin or two. Once you've paid your buy-in ans imparted your information you'll get paid on the value of information. If you want to know something you can purchase it outright or in trade."

"Selling information huh? Well, what if the old woman lies to you and says she already knows it even if she doesn't?"

"In order to be certain of good information for good coin, Grannies are always truthful. If a Granny is known to lie about the value of the information then she doesn't last long. Its simply good business."

"What is someone has a grudge out for her and purposely ruins her reputation?"

"The either she will have enough people her know her well to stand up for her or..." Hisana shrugged. "She falls."

She paused at a vendor on the food ring to buy two small round loaves of bread, two balls of soft goatcheese, a flatbread spread with chickpea paste and stuffed with what looked like grilled cabbage and the two of them ate while they walked through the marketplace.

:_So this is what it is like to eat while one walks_,: Byakuya mused to himself.

In the Kuchiki Manor, meals were always served with all due decorum att he table. The idea of "meals to go" were things that happened to persons below the salt. This was the first time he had ever eaten a meal while on his feet. It wasn't altogether unpleasant, the wind and the sun of the day felt nice.

Hisana seemed to think so too, for she set her pack down by the side of a well just outside of the first decent=looking building Byakuya had seen since he had come to this sector. It had proper plaster walls, clay shingles on its roof and, when compared to the rest of the buildings in any of the city ares he's seen so far, looked truly palatial. It wouldn't even have looked very out of place in Seireitei (in the poorer districts, close to Eleventh Squad hall). There she sat and fished in her carry basket for a moment or two, then pulled out a much battered but obviously well-cared for erhu and bow. She spent a moment tuning the instrument then began warning up explaining that she didn't want to go into her interview for work cold.

He leaned back against the side of the well to listen to her play and noted as she got started and warmed up that her playing, though clearly uneducated, was actually quite fine for an amateur. She had an ear for music and an instinct for the form it seemed. There were very few sour notes, and what notes there were she obviously caught herself and practiced until the melody ran smoothly. By the time she had finished practicing a small crowd had gathered round the well, there were even a few coins of small denomination sprinkled on the ground at her feet. Hisana graciously nodded her thanks to the benefactors and continued her practice. It seemed that music was one of those pastimes that souls who were waiting out their span of time between incarnations enjoyed. Byakuya simply leaned back and enjoyed the music his companion made, she was really quite elegant at it, a fine player. In fact, with very little instruction at all she could become quite well-reknowned, even in Seireitei which hosted the best of the best.

"Hey!" a rough voice called out, jarring her out of her concentration. "You can't busk here wench! This turf belongs to Sei Norikada, you have to get permission from him if'n yer wanna turn a profit."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I meant no offense-" Hisana began timidly.

"I'll forgive you this time. Those coins 'll do as an apology, and as fer getting permission from the boss well..." he very obviously leered at her, looking her up and down in a way that made Byakuya's hand tighten on his sword. "If yer real nice ta me like a good girl I'm sure I can convince him ta give you a place."

"I really don't think-" Hisana said scrambling to her feet to evade him even as he reached to snatch her up. Byakuya was right between them, hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to be drawn. He needn't have bothered...

"Hyaaaaaaa!" a yell came from the side.

A small streak of bright red at about waist height barreled toward Hisana's would-be assailant, knocking the man in the back of his knees with a tiny broom-shaft, then the young boy (for Byakuya could clearly see it was a young boy of about five, maybe six years old) threw a dirty cleaning rag over the mans face to blind him while he whacked him firmly in the stomach with the butt end of his broom. Byakuya was also surprised to note a tiny budding trace of reiatsu, that the boy was just clearly starting to develop.

"Wait'll I get ahold o' you ya little brat, I'll rip you apart and dance in your entrails!" The thug said as he pulled the cloth from his eyes to get his bearings.

"Yer lucky it was _me_ that stopped you!" the brat called back cheekily as he dodged the man's swinging fist. "You know good an' well that this watering hole belongs to oneesan. If she'd caught you about what you were playing at, you'd be facing a whole lot more than just a few hits with a broom, your boss'd be charged with blood tithe for you messin' about with one of the girls here."

"Don' gimme that, she's a drifter, she don' belong ta Barai House and Nee-san wouldn't give a rusty pin!"

"The hell you say, she's our new- uh," the boy spied her erhu. "Musician, jackass! You know talent's hard ta find. Oneesan imported her from two whole towns over! We should make you and your boss cough up wergild just fer bothering her from trying to practice. An' besides all that..."

Byakuya was graced with the sight of seeing a tiny five year old bravely draw himself up to his full four foot height and put on the face of an elder preparing a lecture for some erring student who's done something stupid he knows is wrong.

"Only a weak, pathetic, cowardly peice of scum would ever lay hands on a woman!" the five-year old scolded. "It would be better to die than to live as scum. Ya got that? Crappy grown-up!" the boy shouted and then made a face at the man.

"Why you!" the thug said, recovering from the minor injuries the young child had inflicted on him.

The boy took a fighters stance clearly copied from observances of those he'd seen around him, the stance was too wide and the balance looked slightly off, but the way he positioned himself spoke of a fighters instincts. The little idiot possibly had a death wish, or was just too young and dumb to know when to back down. Byakuya was betting on the latter since nothing about the red-haired five year old spoke of someone who gave into despair.

:_The boy shows plenty of spirit for picking a fight with someone so much older and bigger than he is, but he is clearly not long in the common sense department. He must give his older sister a great deal of trouble. Still, the words he spoke are ones that cannot be ignored. For one so small it is clear that he knows what he is fighting for. This being the case, I suppose I shall have to get involved_,: Byakuya thought with an internal sigh.

His pride as a Kuchiki would certainly not allow him to let someone very much smaller and weaker than he was to fight his battles for him. In the future when he became a Captain in the Court Guard Squads he would send troops out to face their fates on the battlefield, but this boy, for all of his spirit was smaller, weaker, untrained and no warrior. Byakuya's position was clear.

"It is clear to me that it is you who are in the wrong," Byakuya stated clearly. "Even if I had not taken exception to your presence disturbing my enjoyment of this woman's fine playing, the young boy has put it quite succinctly. By my pride as a-"

Byakuya caught himself.

"By my pride as a _man_, I will not allow you to touch either of them. If you leave now, I will deign to overlook your offenses. If you stay, then you take your life into your own hands."

"Puh!" the slobbering wretch spat at his feet and Byakuya eyed the offending glob of mucus with disfavor. It had landed on the ground. If it had landed on Byakuya's foot, he would have been forced to kill him on principle.

"It's your funeral," the man grunted.

Byakuya did not dignify the remark by replying that he had been thinking the same thing.

End Interlude Part 2

* * *

**Yay! An update. I could never seem to figure out what I wanted to say in this chapter and one night, after reading the chapter where Renji has his fight with the woman-fullbringer with the fabulous boots and ended the fight saying "a man who'd raise a hand to a woman is scum and I'd rather die than live as scum" (C'mon, I know I can't be the only one who got wooogly-eyed and said "you are the man I thought you were!")I got this inspiration. I wish I could take credit for the Granny idea but I got the idea from Sharon SHinn's new book "Troubled Waters" If you haven't read anything by SHaron SHinn, you need to, get one from Amazon or Barnes and Noble right away I urge you!** Anyway, I hope ou enjoyed, tell me what you thought please.

**Also, shameless plug, I'm going to be posting a new fic for the fandom Legend of Twelve Kingdoms which doesn't get as much traffic, so if anyone has seen the anime and wants a (IMHO) good read, I'd certainly appreciate the extra traffic. It's an adventure story called The Path of Sorrows, The Dragon Throne. Look forward to it please!**


	6. Interlude Part III

The fight, if it could actually be called that, against the thug was almost laughably brief. He was plenty strong and when he charged in like a bull all Byakuya had to do to win the fight was the barest of sidesteps with a simultaneous disarm and a subtle push that sent the ox face-first into the side of the well and overboard. The young noble looked curiously down past the lip of the well to the soaked and cursing form of his offensive attacker and said in the mildest tones

"I believe that ensuring him of his yearly bath will have been my public service for the day. However, one notes that such an obstruction in the well would be most inconvenient for the surrounding populace."

The young red-haired boy scowled over at him and said

"I coulda got 'im y'know!"

Byakuya tried not to look as amused as he felt at the sight of the pint-sized child puffing out his chest and trying to look like he actually had a prayer of defeating someone so much larger than himself.

:_Leave it not be said he lacks for courage... good sense, yes, but I suppose such is the way of things out here_,: Byakuya thought.

"My my, what seems to be the disturbance out here," a strangely melodious voice called from the nearby gate.

Framed in the central gateway was a woman who would not have looked out of place in even Seireitei. She was impeccably, if provocatively, dressed, wearing a brightly colored and ornate long-sleeved full kimono and furisode that was loosened around the neckline revealing her shoulders and the valley of her generous breasts. Her brocaded obi was tied tightly to accentuate a slim waist and generous hips, her lovely face was expertly painted and her amber-colored hair was fashioned in a very elaborate style with combs and pins. She was quite beautiful in the aesthetic sense and she looked the picture of the most harmless and elegant of ladies.

"Onee-san! This guy took over my fight!" the young boy said, pointing rudely at him. Byakuya had never had someone actually point their finger at him before.

"Renji, what have I told you about fighting? It is far from elegant and you must refrain from doing so within the confines of Barai house."

"Yes ma'am," the boy said with grudging meekness, head bowed to receive his scolding properly. "But don't you always say that a man who raises his hand to a woman is scum, I just wanted to protect the pretty missy over here."

The strangely piercing gaze of the lady fell on Hisana who still had her erhu out in hand. Hisana smiled shyly and said

"I heard that you were interested in hiring musicians for a gathering this week," Hisana said with an elegant and graceful bow. "I would like to work for you for that time."

Without further ado, Hisana took out her erhu and started to play. She played one fast piece that impressed even Byakuya with the quickness in her clever fingers, a slower piece that seemed to make the humble instrument sing, and a small sampling of her repertiore.

"You play quite well," Amber said politely when she was done. "And you are correct in that I am looking for musicians to play for the upcoming gathering. I would be glad to have you on to play for me. The price is room, breakfast and two coppers a day."

"More than fair and I thank you," Hisana said. "However, I do have another traveling with me."

Byakuya tried not to look like his noble self as the clearly very observant and clever eyes of Amber fell upon him, but he had the feeling that she had been aware of him this whole time and was only now turning her gaze fully upon him.

"Even Barai House gets short-staffed for an event such as this," Amber assured him. "He may stay and clean in exchange for food and shelter."

Byakuya's eyes widened in surprise and his jaw might have actually parted from the sheer profound shock of it all. Had he heard correctly? He, Byakuya Kuchiki of the Nobelest of the Four Clans Kuchiki, was being expected to work as a menial?

"That will be fine and we thank you for your generosity madam," Hisana said quickly, accepting on his own behalf before he could even begin to explain why such an arrangement was against the natural order of the universe. Kuchiki's were warriors! Noble protectors of souls and guardians of the Balance, and of Law, they were not... kitchen knaves! But Hisana was already dragging him along behind her into the establishment, the young boy tagging along with them both.

The place was bigger than he would have credited a building in outer Rukongai to be, especially weighed against all the other ramshackle specimens that he had seen thus far. The walls were clean, the floors were properly covered in wood that was not only clean but polished as well. The great soaking tubs were being scrubbed by teams of several industrious young children wearing loose tunic and trews. The tatami rooms were being cleaned and made ready, cooks, servants and wait-staff rushed here and there bearing piles of blankets and futons, towels, folded laundry and cleaning supplies. It looked like the Kuchiki Manor at spring cleaning time. As Byakuya glanced into the tatami receiving rooms from time there were ladies wearing ornate and very fine robes practicing their dancing, some their playing and singing, others their ability to serve tea and some their skill at conversation. Hisana was led off to where the other musicians gathered. She gave him a soft encouraging smile before she went, and Byakuya quickly suppressed the embarrassing and utterly unmanly feeling of a small child being abandoned with strangers.

"Madam left me t' look after ya," the tiny boy said, looking at him with his hands on his hips. "Just follow me, do what I do. Oh, an' don't get no funny idea's about the women here."

Byakuya looked with irritated offense at the boy who implied that a Kuchiki would consort with a common prostitute in Rukongai. He had heard that such things happened, infrequently, but to other Noble Houses.

"Here," the boy said shoving a bamboo broom at him and leading him out into one of the Barai House's private interior gardens. "You can help me sweep up the leaves in the courtyard."

"Indeed," Byakuya said trying not to look at a loss.

He had trained as a warrior at the Spiritual Arts Academy which had given him work in the form of practice and assignments that he had felt were difficult, but Byakuya Kuchiki had never actually used a cleaning implement to commit manual labor.

"Are you stupid or sumthin'?" the little red-haired boy demanded of him, huffing in impatience.

He quickly demonstrated how to use the implement and the best way to gather up all the leaves in the pile.

"I'll start in that corner if you go over there," the boy said, shaking his head and clearly wondering what sort of help he had been ordered to babysit.

Byakuya had to swallow his offense at being taken for a simpleton by a child not even half his own age. Still the activity was sort of soothing if one discounted the fact that his cleaning partner was voluble and clearly intended to tell him everything there was to know about Barai House. In listening to the boy ramble on, Byakuya learned that Barai House served as a place of entertainment and relaxation for all of the high-ranked warlords in that sector of their district. He also learned that Madam and her girls enjoyed a sort of diplomatic immunity, Barai House was much like a watering hole on the African savannah and that bathouses were where warlords conducted business with each other and alliances and weregild negotiations (as well as marriages and other Rukongai ceremonies). Next Byakuya was told about the upcoming party that was being thrown. Three of the major warlords of the district were coming together to discuss the terms of a small series of "rumbles" which Byakuya took to mean turf-wars. There were weregild negotiations to smooth out and a marriage alliance between a warlord and one of the female thanes of another warlord.

Byakuya had to hide his surprise at the detail in the description that the boy gave him about the politics of the streets in Hangdog, many of the manuvers and intricacies would not have been out of place in the nobility of Seireitei. After he had met with Hisana later that evening, she was able to go into even greater detail; the interpersonal relationships, the history of the short summer-war, the network of ever-shifting alliances among the warlords.

"War-lord Amuro and his brothers on the northeast sector of hangdog have been slowly eating up turf after the predecessor of the current warlord in the southwest section passed away. The Warlord of the southwest Sector was a steady man, who while he didn't loose ground, didn't really gain it either so things in his sector were peaceful, but now that his thane, Kijimura won out over all of the other thanes in that warcourt for the position, it been nothing but fighting. Kijimura is the strongest fighter in that warcourt, and there's no denying that he is ambitious, but he lacks the understanding of people his predecessor had. He would just rather wage turf-war after turf-war and thus he is actually loosing thanes for his inability to negotiate satisfactory weregild and his failure to preside over marriage and adoption ceremonies in his sector. Plus, he does not offer his protection for the ordinary people who pay his fee the way he should. I have had to avoid his sector because there is much unrest, even without factoring in the turf-wars," Hisana told him after he'd expressed an interest.

"But you said this was a meeting between three war-lords," Byakuya prompted, actually finding politics interesting for once, partly because Hisana was so good at understanding them, and passed that understanding and quasi-enthusiasm on to him.

:But I suppose she would have to be knowledgeable,: Byakuya thought to himself after some consideration. :A lone drifter like her who fails to keep an eye on the powerful people all around her is probably a dead drifter out here.:

"Amuro, Kijimura, and Komomatsu," Hisana confirmed with a nod of her head. "Komomatsu has been warlord of the east sector in Hangdog for decades. He runs his sector well. His thanes respect him, he does not lean overly heavily on the people for his protection pay, and he is a canny and skilled statesmen. However his closest thanes are troubled because recently he has been distracted. A young woman-thane from Kijimura's court has captured his heart apparently, and he has come to negotiate a marriage-alliance with her and her warlord Kijimura. Amuro of course, doesn't want this because a marriage alliance between those two warcourts would strengthen the forces arrayed against Amuro's bid for power so he's going to do all he can to keep martial-assistance out of the dowry negotiations. He would prefer that Kijimura continue bungling his management so that Amuro can keep picking away at his territory."

"Does he have any leverage to do so?" Byakuya inquired curiously.

"Weregild," Hisana replied with another nod. "In the recent series of turf-wars some of Komomatu's younger thanes got overexcited and challenged some of Amuro's warriors outside of a rumble. I could say that they were provoked into it by slander but anyway, there were injuries, even a few maimings, so Amuro has the right to join the negotiations that way."

"He will barter his weregild for Komomatsu's oath not to send martial assistance to Kijimura in Amuro's future bids for more territory from that warlord."

"Most likely. Now Kijimura of course, since he sees a weakness in Komomatsu's feelings for his thane that he can exploit, is going to be putting his own bid into place. He is most likely going to try to get Komomatsu's oath of martial assistance in taking back some of the turf that Amuro has won away from Kijimura. My guess is that before this is all through there will need to be concessions on all sides."

Now very curious to see how far Hisana's political acumen went, if it was indeed on par with any noble lady's, Byakuya asked

"Well, if you were Madam and in charge of negotiations, how would you handle this?"

Hisana smiled a little at the preposterous notion of her having so much power and shook her head.

"I am no madam, to rule over all the political weavings in Hangdog."

"But if you were," Byakuya pressed.

Hisana gamely gave it some serious consideration. After some long minutes thought she said

"Amuro could be satisfied with a concession of non-interference in any future bids to Kijimura's territory from Komomatsu. Kijimura is going to push for the sort of assistance that would win him back some of the turf he's lost, but to be honest he should be more worried about the civil rebellion that is about to break out in his own sector due to his mishandling of his territory. If I were Madam, I would broker a private deal between the woman-thane that Komomatsu is enamored of and Komomatsu to set Kijimura's territory up for a coup from within. Komomatsu could then rightly declare that he will not encroach upon Amuro's territory which will be enough to keep Amuro satisfied."

"What about Kijimura?" Byakuya inquired, a bit surprised at the underhandedness of Hisana's solution.

"Madam probably plans to get him out of the way anyway, his sector is unstable. An unstable sector is not in the interests of Madam. She would far rather stabilize it with a coup from within, especially with the wife of a leader like Komomatsu, because a stable sector means less bother for her to deal with and more patronage for the bathouse. In addition, even a warlord like the Amuro brothers would hesitate in taking on a warlord like Komomatsu, especially when backed by his wife's warcourt."

"So, you would dispose of an unstable rule, cement stability with marriage and nip one warlord's restless overweening ambitions all in one stroke then."

"Well, it would be nice if it worked out that way," Hisana agreed.

"What about Amuro's weregild?"

Hisana considered it for a long moment.

"As part of the bride price, Komomatsu can offer to cover the maximum expense of the weregild out of pocket on behalf of Kijimura. It may not be what he really wants, but it's an offer that cannot be reasonably refused."

"You are a remarkable woman," Byakuya said in genuine admiration.

"I'm not so remarkable," Hisana said modestly. "I say things like this but I do not know that I would have the strength to see to such a matter myself."

In the next two days he came to admire Hisana's political acumen as well as her grace in dealing with tense situations as the walls of Barai House cme to be filled with rough, thuggish war-like men who were confined to leisurely activities when all they really wanted to do was fight. It was like watching someone try to hold a tea ceremony in Eleventh Squad. Still, the ladies, through the use of subtle diplomacy, distraction and entertainment managed to keep matters well enough in line that there were no major fights before the warlords could all sit down at the negotiation table under the eye of Madam Amber. Despite her claims of weakness of spirit, Hisana contributed in no small part to the proceedings, if only by playing softly in the background and as the occasion warranted, creating an atmosphere of romance for the warlord Komomatsu to court his chosen lady-thane.

It was on an evening, after Hisana's shift as entertainer had ended that she and Byakuya were sitting out in a small garden under the stars that he curiously asked her why Komomatsu was courting the thane-lady if he was already making marriage alliance arrangements with her warlord. Hisana looked at him in some humor and said

"Nori is a thane in her own right, and while she pledges her sword to her warlord, her private matters are mostly her own to attend to. Komomatsu is courting her because he wants an affectionate wife, not a resentful bride who may decide to kill him in his sleep."

"That makes sense," Byakuya allowed. "But if that is the case, then why doesn't he simply marry her outright without getting his warlord involved."

"Thanes are considered a warlord's family," Hisana replied. "You wouldn't snatch a girl out of the bed of her father's house without asking, would you?"

"Naturally not," Byakuya replied. "But I'm curious, are there marriage arrangements made between warlords on behalf of thier thanes that are done without the thane's consent?"

"If a marriage is what is needed to cement an alliance between two warlords every effort is made to find two thanes who may like each other," Hisana is said. "After all, we are dealing with fighting warriors, if they hate each other then there is not likely to be much of an alliance left after the wedding night if you take my meaning."

"I wish it worked that way among my family," Byakuya muttered.

"You have a family?" Hisana asked sharply.

Byakuya could swear he'd heard a note of disapproval in her voice.

"I... um, yes," he admitted reluctantly.

"Then what are you doing here, loafing around with me?" she demanded next.

She definitely sounded irritated with him, her tone, while still gentle, carried a bit more steel in it than he usually heard from her.

"I- They were trying to arrange a marriage for me without asking me and I didn't want to be forced into my future life partner without any say," he replied, feeling nettled.

"So instead you decide to drop your familial bonds like an inconvenient package and disappear."

"It's not like... I mean, they know I can take care of myself," he said a bit lamely because when she put it like that, that was exactly what he had done. Hardly the sort of behaviour that befitted a nobleman, much less the heir to one of the four Noble Clans.

"I see," Hisana said, looking at him with a look that was both disappointed and softly chiding.

Byakuya felt his heart peirced by that look and would have done anything to erase it from her eyes and restore her previous good opinion of him.

"It was not very good of you to make your family worry so much. Those who have the benefit of such a bond must also be prepared to carry the full weight of it as well. Byakuya," she said, a strange, fathomless sadness welling up in the mysterious depths of her eyes. "You must never be willing to turn your back on it, if you do you'll regret it for the rest of your life. I beg you to go back and make amends with them, if not for thier sake then for your own."

Byakuya was actually struck speechless by her kindness and sincerety. His heart felt truly humbled to receive such selfless advice so generously given.

"You won't be able to live at peace unless you do."

"Hisana," he said softly, looking deep into her eyes like dark pools.

They always held such mystery to him, like they contained all the secrets of light and dark in thier bottomleess depths, that there was a secret joy and a secret pain that he could not begin to understand. Byakuya then realized that he could fall in and drown in her and not care for a moment.

"Goodnight Byakuya, I hope you will think on what I have said," Hisana said, getting up gracefully and going inside to bed.

"Wait! Hisana," he protested.

"I said goodnight."

The sliding door shut with a soft emphatic clack.

Byakuya sighed. Though he knew she did not know the full situation, her advice was nonetheless very true. Byakuya was simply spinning his wheels there, not wanting to look back or move forward. Unless he repaired the situation, not only would he personally regret it, but Hisana would lose all respect for him. Byakuya had to admit to himself that her good opinion of him meant the world to him.

:But not yet,: he told himself. :It can wait until after the negotiations have taken place surely. I just...:

Byakuya wanted more time around the mysterious Hisana, time to win her wary trust, time to make her look at him. Even as he knew he fell deeper into his growing feelings for her, even his pride could not make him care that he drowned.

* * *

**Been a while since I posted the next chapter of this one. I hope you all enjoyed it and leave a note if you have time. By the way, if you're looking for something else written by me, I'm posting all my scraps on AO3. Mostly stuff I started but didn't finish but there are some short one-shot Bleach stories there, go read them if you have time and nothing better to do. It's at An Archive Of Our Own.**


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